Ecommerce in Slovenia is growing fast

Ecommerce in Slovenia is showing growth of 35 to 40 percent. More Slovenian consumers are shopping online and there are now over 3,000 small and large online stores in Slovenia. Already 92 percent of online users have shopped online at least once.

This is evident from the survey Shopper’s Mind 2016, which was carried out by comparison shopping platform Ceneje and marketing research company Valicon last month. They interviewed over 5,300 Slovenian internet users about several ecommerce topics.

Consumer electronics are popular online

This year, 37 percent of all internet users has made at least one purchase per month, which is 7 percentage points more than in 2015. Consumers in Slovenia are fond of buying technical products online, as 34 percent has bought electronics online. Almost one in five (19%) bought fashion online, while 13 percent shopped for home and garden equipment via the internet. Beauty and health products are also popular online, with 11 percent of online Slovenians who bought such items. Product categories such as auto accessories and tires, furniture, pharmaceuticals and fast-moving consumer goods are all growing fast.

Privacy and security major reasons not to shop online

As said, 92 percent of all online users in Slovenia have shopped online at least once. Among those who don’t have experience with online shopping, being accustomed to the traditional shopping channels is by far the most important reason not to shop online. Another important reason is formed by concerns about privacy and the security of their personal data.

Shopper’s Mind 2016 shows that, although Slovenia is known for its tradition of cash-on-delivery payments, electronic payments have increased during recent years. The country thus follows the developed online economies in Europe. One in five online purchases were completed with credit card, which is an increase of 12 percent compared to last year. However, cash on delivery decreased by 3 percentage points.

One in four shop mostly cross-border

The research also shows that 47 percent of online consumers shop exclusively at domestic online stores, this share increased by 4 percentage points compared to last year. At the same time, almost a quarter of online shoppers order more than half of their products cross-border.

Comparison shopping engines more and more popular

Based on the answers of Slovenian internet users, it seems that comparison shopping engines and online marketplaces are becoming increasingly popular. More than one third of the online population in Slovenia used such comparison portals last year, which is almost 20 percent more than the number of people who did in 2014. The use of search engines as a source of information on products seems to have drastically decreased.

According to Ceneje’s CEO Darko Dujič, there are now more than 3,000 small and large online stores in Slovenia. “There are also quite a few specialist online retailers that are successfully expanding their activity in foreign markets, unlike traditional retailers.” He thinks trust, secure payments and an excellent user experience are crucial for further development of ecommerce in Slovenia. “It’s particularly important to establish a recognizable and reliable evaluation system of online retailers”, he says.

Since September this year, online retailers in Slovenia can apply for the national trustmark Certified Shop and the international trustmark of European ecommerce association EMOTA.